Because of the Covid-19 epidemic, the shift to part-time or full-time remote worker has accelerated in recent years. Although the majority of businesses have done a very good job of navigating this change, they haven’t developed the institutional expertise required to maintain a remote workforce in the long run. Additionally, companies are starting to rethink their commitment to remote work in light of potential future issues.
However, the pandemic actually showed that the great majority of problems arising from working remotely can be resolved. And that reduces the number of significant issues that company executives need to anticipate and prepare for. Creating strategies for handling unsatisfactory or troublesome workers in a remote environment is one of them.
When a person works remotely, it’s significantly more difficult to identify problems with them than it is in an office situation. Even if a problem’s existence is established, getting the data required to take appropriate action is also difficult. However, there are ways for corporate executives to create efficient protocols to deal with these kinds of circumstances. They can take these actions.
Set reasonable performance goals at first
Business executives must first rethink what constitutes sufficient productivity in light of the increasingly prevalent remote work environment. The explanation is straightforward: many companies experienced a brief increase in productivity when they initially shifted to entirely remote work. This led to many CEOs having irrational expectations about what their employees should be able to do. If they could just hit the correct buttons, they saw the higher productivity as a performance level they might anticipate moving forward.
However, the majority of experts concur that workers banding together to weather the rapid disruption caused by the pandemic was what caused the brief increase in output. It’s not anything that a company could duplicate. Executives should therefore reevaluate their goals, starting with the pre-pandemic data on in-office productivity. After that, take into consideration any benefits resulting from extracurricular activities and productivity-enhancing technologies. These modified expectations may, in many circumstances, demonstrate that a person who appears to be failing is, in fact, performing about as well as they should.
Give the Success Tools
Many firms were forced to expedite the implementation of digital tools that their employees increasingly depend on in order to set up remote work accommodations. Additionally, that might be the cause of some issues with remote worker performance. An employee who performs poorly, for instance, may not have received the necessary training to use platforms for communication and collaboration. Therefore, companies must go back and ensure that their staff members are familiar with the new tools required for remote work.
It’s also likely that the company didn’t make the best initial decision when deciding which digital technologies to use. Therefore, it’s best to reevaluate an employee’s needs and make sure they’re getting the tools they need to execute their work before blaming them for performance concerns. Ultimately, if you haven’t given your staff the tools they need to succeed in the first place, it’s hard to hold them accountable for their struggles.
Consider Using New Methods to Monitor and Assess Performance
A drawback of working remotely is not being able to see how staff members are managing their daily tasks. Because of this, it can be challenging for managers and executives to identify the root cause of an employee’s problems. But there is a way out of this. Executives can gather and examine detailed employee monitoring system that may point to the issue’s origin by utilizing a Controlio platform or a comparable tool.
A manager or executive might then create an intervention strategy to deal with the problem’s origin. Additionally, they can utilize the data to determine the most effective way to approach the worker and give assistance in resolving the issue. By precisely identifying the cause and location of an employee’s difficulties, conjecture—which frequently makes matters worse rather than better—is avoided.
Make a policy for remediation
There will always be instances in which a single intervention is insufficient, even though speaking with a distant worker who is performing below expectations will frequently result in a long-term solution. The company must have a remediation policy that outlines the exact measures to take in the event that something goes wrong. It’s a good idea to include standard language in the policy for how to inform an employee when they’re falling short of expectations. When the moment comes to activate the policy, having such standardized language at the ready eliminates uncertainty and spares executives from having to hunt for a method to retract an email they didn’t choose well.
The policy should also provide a method for the employee to acknowledge it, as well as clear rules and repercussions. This is a crucial component to have in place as, should the employee need to be fired at the conclusion of the process, it helps to remove some types of liabilities.
Final Word
Ultimately, managing underperforming or troublesome staff members remotely isn’t as challenging as many bosses believe. Giving every employee the resources they need to succeed in their new workplace and setting reasonable expectations for them only requires a few deliberate actions. From there, there’s no need to worry about a long-term switch to entirely remote work as long as the company collects the appropriate performance data and has a well-defined plan of action ready to address performance issues. The company can then benefit from what appears to be the “new normal,” which is here to stay whether you like it or not.
